Decolonizing Afghanistan Countering Imperial Knowledge and Power
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Wazhmah Osman is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at Temple University.Robert D. Crews is Professor of History at Stanford University.
Decolonizing Afghanistan Countering Imperial Knowledge and Power
“Groundbreaking, refreshing, eloquent, and powerful, <i>Decolonizing Afghanistan</i> makes a crucial intervention into the knowledge produced on Afghanistan in the United States and more broadly. It provides nuance, depth, and original perspectives in its analysis of Afghanistan’s social, political, economic, and intellectual histories, and in its unique approach of decoloniality. Thanks to its wide scope and analytical richness, it represents a turning point in the dominant understanding of Afghanistan.”—<b>Zahra Ali, author of</b>, <i><b>Women and Gender in Iraq: Between Nation-Building and Fragmentation</b></i><br /><br />“Employing dynamic decolonial approaches, this pathbreaking multidisciplinary volume does the crucial work of putting Afghanistan in context of colonialism studies. Richly textured and brimming with historical context, it is the volume we need to teach about overlapping colonial formations, how diasporic and local political contestations can occur in tandem, and the vitality of Afghan cultural production. Including Afghanistan in colonialism studies, as this book implores us to do, is a must for our time.”—<b>Amahl Bishara, author of</b>, <i><b>Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression</b></i>
Contributors. Matthieu Aikins, Dawood Azami, Purnima Bose, Paula Chakravartty, Robert D. Crews, Marya Hannun, Ali Karimi, Nivi Manchanda, Sabauon Nasseri, Tausif Noor, Wazhmah Osman, Hosai Qasmi, Zohra Saed, Gazelle Samizay, Morwari Zafar, Helena Zeweri
Section 1. Imperial Imaginaries and the Historical Production of Afghanistan as a Diagnostic Object of Global Security
1. Imperial Misconceptions: The Politics of Knowledge Production / Nivi Manchanda 35
2. Afghanistan and the Soviet Colonial Archive / Robert D. Crews 54
3. The Imperial Gaze and the Development Gaze: Reckoning with the Two Faces of American Empire and Its Afterlives and Deaths / Wazhmah Osman 72
Section 2. Infrastructures and Technologies of Empire
4. Operationalizing "Afghan Culture": Role-Playing and Translation in US Military Counterinsurgency Training / Morwari Zafar 97
5. Shifting Loyalties and Profits: The Rise of Afghanistan's Western-Funded Private Security Contractors / Matthieu Aikins 115
6. Tracking and Targeting: The US Surveillance Infrastructures in Afghanistan / Ali Karimi 134
Section 3. The Politics and Optics of Representation: Media and Propaganda
7. Modernity and Gender Beyond the European Gaze: International Media Coverage of Afghanistan and the Making of News in the 1920s—King Amanullah and Queen Suraya's Grand Tour / Marya Hannun 153
8. A Changing Orientalist Representation of Afghans and Afghanistan in Indian Cinema / Hosai Qasmi 174
9. Withdrawal Narratives: Afghan Women, Time, and Developmental Idealism / Purnima Bose 194
10. The Second Front: The Taliban Information Operation and the Battle for Hearts and Minds in the US/NATO War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) / Dawood Azami 218
Section 4. Reflecting and Speaking Back to Empire
11. Between Humanitarian Aid and Political Critique: Afghan American Mobilizations Post-Evacuation / Helena Zeweri 247
12. Reflections: Afghan Literature and Politics Under US Occupation / Sabauon Nasseri 267
13. Imperial Remainders: Reconfiguring the Legacy of US Occupation in Contemporary Afghan Art / Tausif Noor 284
14. Disrupting the Colonial Canvas: Afghan Art in the Wake of Withdrawal / Gazelle Simizay 295
15. An Other Afghanistan: Indigeneity, Migration, and Belonging in Andkhoy (1973) / Zohra Saed 317
Coda / Paula Chakravartty 335
Acknowledgments 343
Contributors 345
Index 351
“Groundbreaking, refreshing, eloquent, and powerful, <i>Decolonizing Afghanistan</i> makes a crucial intervention into the knowledge produced on Afghanistan in the United States and more broadly. It provides nuance, depth, and original perspectives in its analysis of Afghanistan’s social, political, economic, and intellectual histories, and in its unique approach of decoloniality. Thanks to its wide scope and analytical richness, it represents a turning point in the dominant understanding of Afghanistan.”—<b>Zahra Ali, author of</b>, <i><b>Women and Gender in Iraq: Between Nation-Building and Fragmentation</b></i><br /><br />“Employing dynamic decolonial approaches, this pathbreaking multidisciplinary volume does the crucial work of putting Afghanistan in context of colonialism studies. Richly textured and brimming with historical context, it is the volume we need to teach about overlapping colonial formations, how diasporic and local political contestations can occur in tandem, and the vitality of Afghan cultural production. Including Afghanistan in colonialism studies, as this book implores us to do, is a must for our time.”—<b>Amahl Bishara, author of</b>, <i><b>Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression</b></i>
Contributors. Matthieu Aikins, Dawood Azami, Purnima Bose, Paula Chakravartty, Robert D. Crews, Marya Hannun, Ali Karimi, Nivi Manchanda, Sabauon Nasseri, Tausif Noor, Wazhmah Osman, Hosai Qasmi, Zohra Saed, Gazelle Samizay, Morwari Zafar, Helena Zeweri
Section 1. Imperial Imaginaries and the Historical Production of Afghanistan as a Diagnostic Object of Global Security
1. Imperial Misconceptions: The Politics of Knowledge Production / Nivi Manchanda 35
2. Afghanistan and the Soviet Colonial Archive / Robert D. Crews 54
3. The Imperial Gaze and the Development Gaze: Reckoning with the Two Faces of American Empire and Its Afterlives and Deaths / Wazhmah Osman 72
Section 2. Infrastructures and Technologies of Empire
4. Operationalizing "Afghan Culture": Role-Playing and Translation in US Military Counterinsurgency Training / Morwari Zafar 97
5. Shifting Loyalties and Profits: The Rise of Afghanistan's Western-Funded Private Security Contractors / Matthieu Aikins 115
6. Tracking and Targeting: The US Surveillance Infrastructures in Afghanistan / Ali Karimi 134
Section 3. The Politics and Optics of Representation: Media and Propaganda
7. Modernity and Gender Beyond the European Gaze: International Media Coverage of Afghanistan and the Making of News in the 1920s—King Amanullah and Queen Suraya's Grand Tour / Marya Hannun 153
8. A Changing Orientalist Representation of Afghans and Afghanistan in Indian Cinema / Hosai Qasmi 174
9. Withdrawal Narratives: Afghan Women, Time, and Developmental Idealism / Purnima Bose 194
10. The Second Front: The Taliban Information Operation and the Battle for Hearts and Minds in the US/NATO War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) / Dawood Azami 218
Section 4. Reflecting and Speaking Back to Empire
11. Between Humanitarian Aid and Political Critique: Afghan American Mobilizations Post-Evacuation / Helena Zeweri 247
12. Reflections: Afghan Literature and Politics Under US Occupation / Sabauon Nasseri 267
13. Imperial Remainders: Reconfiguring the Legacy of US Occupation in Contemporary Afghan Art / Tausif Noor 284
14. Disrupting the Colonial Canvas: Afghan Art in the Wake of Withdrawal / Gazelle Simizay 295
15. An Other Afghanistan: Indigeneity, Migration, and Belonging in Andkhoy (1973) / Zohra Saed 317
Coda / Paula Chakravartty 335
Acknowledgments 343
Contributors 345
Index 351
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Wazhmah Osman is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at Temple University.Robert D. Crews is Professor of History at Stanford University.